“We support the first major step toward the realisation of a business idea”

The ICC addresses entrepreneurs with projects in a very early stage and gives them the opportunity to work on their projects for three weeks. What was the reasoning behind this concept?
François Foglia: There are a lot of ideas for future businesses around. Scientists, for example, often have several ideas in the drawer, but don’t have the time to implement them. Of course, there are other events for very early stage projects, but these are usually short. The ICC has a unique format: in the three-week free immersive programme, the teams, supported by our coaches, have the opportunity to build a Minimum Viable Product, which means that they take the first important step towards realising a business idea. In addition, participants are put in contact with investors and other start-up supporters, and can also win cash prizes.

Can only researchers apply for the ICC?
No. We are also trying to attract business people, designers, etc, so that we build interdisciplinary teams. An important point is that not everyone who applies needs to have a project. Anyone interested in developing innovative ICT projects in speech,vision or other ICT technologies can apply.

The “I” in ICC stands for “international”. ICC was created for the first time last year. Were you able to attract applicants from abroad?
Yes, we were very proud of the different backgrounds of the participants last year. All in all, we had 18 teams and several came from abroad. One of the teams was truly global with members in Geneva, Belgium and the US. Those three guys didn’t know each other before the competition – they met on LinkedIn after they had been selected, and decided to set up a team.

It sounds as though the ICC is also a good place to expand personal networks.
That’s true – and our participants make use of this opportunity. They not only collaborate in their teams, but are in close contact with the whole group. In addition, the have the opportunity to meet the Idiap/IM2 researchers.

Will there be anything new in 2013, or is the ICC organised in the same way as last year?
We received very positive comments from participants last year, so we will not be changing much. An improvement this year will be that participants will have more time to work on their prototypes, less coaching sessions.

The ICC is co-organised by the IDIAP Research Institute in Martigny. The institute is not very well known in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. What does it do?
IDIAP is a research foundation affiliated within the ETH domain and works together with EPFL. We focus on ICT technologies, such as multimedia information management and perceptual and cognitive systems. IDIAP has three fields of activities: basic research, education and technology transfer. In total, 120 people work in Martigny.

The ICC is concerned with tech transfer and some of our readers will know IDIAP spin-offs such as Koemei and KeyLemon. Does this mean that tech transfer is an important focus for the institute?
Absolutely. About 10 people work on transfer projects; these are developers and engineers trying to fill the gap between fundamental research and the market. And IDIAP co-founded the incubator IdeArk, where today several spin-offs are located. 

More information about the competition can be found on the ICC website: www.createchallenge.org